How do I conquer the dreaded snare ring?

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Hi_Flyer

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I'm sure everybody encounters this at one time or another...

It didn't sound so noticeably bad when we were tracking. But now, just a little bit of compression is bringing it out.

It sounds OK when the whole band is playing, but when it comes to a part where some of the other instruments drop out, it sticks out like a sore thumb.

If I use EQ to pull it out, should I be doing that before or after the compression?

Any other tips or tricks? Should I try gating it maybe?

thanks.
 
If you EQ it out a bit before compression, it won't smash your compressor as hard.

Depending on what you're mixing in, try Voxengo's Soniformer - It's basically (?!?) a infinitely adjustable frequency dependent compressor - You can "tune" it to compress that particular note (of the ring) without messing with the rest of the drum too much. I think there's a demo at Voxengo...
 
A gate works wonders on a ringing snare - but use a gate that has a gate 'release' adjustment (for tuning in a more pleasing decay on the ring you are trying to tame). A gate without this feature can be used, but not as easily/effectively.

And have EQ AFTER the gate - this way your gate setting isn't disturbed when you start playing with EQ.

Interesting about John's suggestion of EQ before the gate. I guess it may help to make the gate's behaviour more stable by reducing 'rogue' frequencies?
 
robin watson said:
Interesting about John's suggestion of EQ before the gate. I guess it may help to make the gate's behaviour more stable by reducing 'rogue' frequencies?
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I think John may have been recommending EQing the ring out before a compressor, not a gate. I would second that recommendation; the idea is that you want to EQ out the frequencies that are unpleasantly accentuated by the compressor before they get to the compressor.

G.
 
thanks for the suggestions... So far, I have tried to pull it out with some pre-compression EQ, the problem is that the compression just seems to bring it right out again. Maybe my release setting on the compressor is part of the problem?

I'll try a gate too. I dunno if I have a really good one though. I think I want one with that "look ahead" function. I was messing around with digitalfishphones floorfish, and I liked some of the features, but I think a little bit of the initial transient was getting cut off. Can anybody recommend a nice gate? A freebie is preferable, however I have been thinking about getting a Waves bundle, if there is a good gate in there it might influence my decision...

I'll check out Soniformer too. I like the Voxengo stuff, I have a few of their freebies and some of their non-freebies too...
 
Next time you track, try some "moon gel" on the batter head. Works wonders, you can get it at any drum shop and most music stores.
 
First, a gate won't reduce snare ring , only the decay of it. Before EQ'ing, I would suggest getting the best overall drum mix you can with the other drum tracks and the snare muted. Then add what you need form the snare track with no processing. Then add some EQ cuts around the ring if it is still too much, then add your compressor and maybe even another parametric cut if necessary after the compressor as well as before it.
 
reshp1 said:
Next time you track, try some "moon gel" on the batter head. Works wonders, you can get it at any drum shop and most music stores.
Click to expand...

I agree. There's also a version that comes in strips. What's cool about the strip is that you can apply just a certain amount inward or outward of the shell to determine the amount of damping.

Or you could be like Ringo Star and use a half pack of cigarettes taped to head or t-shirt.

Ring can be very difficult to get rid of after the fact, and is often in the area that you don't want to reduce in order to get a good snare sound. Just try a good compromise using EQ and use it. It's the same with trying to get high hat tracks out of the snare track, using gates more often do more damage than help.
 
reshp1 said:
Next time you track, try some "moon gel" on the batter head. Works wonders, you can get it at any drum shop and most music stores.
Click to expand...

Bingo! Tune your snare and use some moon gel.

Also, there's always Drumagog. :D
 
Sounds to me like tuning the snare better is definately the solution. However, my impresison from the original post is that the tracks are already laid and can't or won't get redone in order to fix this problem. This is a common problem. Often times we think we are getting great tracks and later on after the fact we find things we wish we had done differently. This happens to even the greatest of tracking engineers. The greatest mix engineers always find some sort of way to correct those few little things though.
 
I just dealt with a similar problem earlier this week....tuning the snare is a good start....new head is a good start....making sure the snares and nice and tight is a good start....if that fails....slap some duct tape on the top and bottom heads to deaden the ring a bit....if that doesnt work....then buy a new damn snare.....:)
 
Or you could always use the oldest trick in the book and have them set a their wallet on the snare while recording..... when in use since the 50-60's work quite well with a leather wallet.


Randy
 
When tuning a snare, pay attention to the actual snares. Many people overlook this tuning step, and will have a shitty sounding snare due to the guts not being aligned right.

Make sure each strand is even with the others and at equal tension. Turn the snares back on, then hit the snare while tightening to the guts until you hit the sweet spot.
 
Wow, has anyone actually read the original post in this thread?

All I keep seeing are suggestions on tuning the snare etc... Those are all things that can not be done at this point so are all moot points. The original post mentioned that this guy just sort of slipped through. The track is already laid. It is too late to tune the snare. Now it is all about how to treat the snare to get it back to where it should be. This happens to all of us at some time or another and probably at least once per album at the very least. In fact, when the drums were first tracked, the ring may have actually felt good and been desirable. That isn't a mistake. But, sometimes throughtout the course of a recording things take turns and what may have worked before no longer works quite as well.

Sorry to rant, but it seems like this kind of thing has been happening more an more lately. I think people like to jump into threads with out reading all of the posts and just the title and the last couple of posts. By doing that, we don't actually get educated posts, just a bunch of tidbits that may not even pertain to the topic at hand.
 
well you are married to the ring now im assuming.
Id say either get a good parametric eq, and try to sweep out the ring as best you can.

Or you can always trigger it.

You could also do a mult of it, and do a tight gate, then verb it.
Then tuck the eq'd snare underneath it to fill the gap.

Personally....id trigger it.
But i do lots of heavy metal work ...so there you go.
 
xstatic said:
Wow, has anyone actually read the original post in this thread?

All I keep seeing are suggestions on tuning the snare etc... Those are all things that can not be done at this point so are all moot points.
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Wow, did you actually read any of the posts in this thread?

Just a couple posts up you will see:

scottgman said:
Also, there's always Drumagog.
Click to expand...
Not to mention that Massive Master, Robin Watson, Southside Glenn, and Noisewreck all gave suggestions on EQ, noise gate, and compression.

So who appointed you to be the "helpful post" police?? It seems to me that in addition to receiving suggestions on how to fix his current problem, this is a great opportunity to learn how to avoid the problem in the future.
 
I did not mean that all of the posts were that way, but a good chunk of them are. If we want to talk about snare tuning, lets start a new thread so everyone cna spot it. In no way did I intend to be the "helpful post" police. I was just trying to get the thread back on topic. There has been some good info in this thread, but sadly you have to wade through it all quite a bit to find it now.

i am guessing that one of two things has happened here. Either you were one of the ones who suggested snare tuning, or you took my comment as a personal attack at you. My comment was meant for all of the people who are just blindly posting and not considering the question at hand and solutions for the original poster. How many times do we have to listen to the same reply form different people because they don't even know what the question is?
 
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